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Recent History and Present Status of the 
Vinland Problem 



BY 

W. H. BABCOCK 



REPRINTED FROM 

THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 
Vol. XI, APRIL, 1921, No. 2 



AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY 

BROADWAY AT 156TH STREET 

NEW YORK 



[Reprinted from I ■ • Ceogra ,.:,,i: Review, Vol. XI. No. 2, April. 192 i] 



RECENT HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS OF THE 
VINLAND PROBLEM 

By W. H. Babcock 

It is now eight years since the author published the results of his researches 
into the matter of Vinland. 1 He here proposes to analyze the subsequent 
developments in comment and theory of this three-century-old problem, 
whose solution is still incomplete. 

In "Early Norse Visits to North America" it was urged, as had been 
urged previously by Dr. Storm and others, that among Vinland saga texts 
our reliance should be mainly on the eldest — the Hauk's Book narrative 
and the nearly identical, though independently copied, manuscript No. 557 
of the Arna-Magnaean collection at Copenhagen, entitled "Eric the Red," 
and that the Flatey Book version should be used only incidentally and with 
special caution. It was further stressed that in geographic identification 
we must distinguish the names of extensive regions (usually ending in "land") 
from those which mark some notable local feature of the coast line and that 
in dealing with both, and especially in dealing with the latter, we have to 
consider and compare the coast of about the year 1000, which is not neces- 
sarily the same as that of today. The final conclusion was that allowing, 
however imperfectly, for these transformations and for the natural failure 
in exactness of a popular story growth which remained unwritten for about 
two hundred years, we may still say that Karlsefni's main quarters in 
Vinland (Straumfiord) were most likely at Passamaquoddy Bay, with 
Grand Manan Island (Straumey) out before it in the currents at the mouth 
of the Bay of Fundy; and that Hop, the most southerly point which he 
attained, was almost certainly in lower New England, perhaps (though not 
necessarily) at Mount Hope Bay (see Fig. 1, p. 267.) 

Some of the foregoing suggestions — especially as to coastal changes and 
t.ie difference between a "land" and a spot — would seem almost too rudi- 
mentary and obvious for statement, except for the fact that they are so 
perversely disregarded by really notable writers. 

Hovgaard's Work 

In 1914 appeared an important book, "The Voyages of the Norsemen to 
America," 2 by Professor William Hovgaard, an acknowledged authority 
on nautical architecture and engineering and on navigation, also excep- 
tionally versed in Scandinavian matters. Its preliminary presentation of 

1 W. H. Babcock: Early Norse Visits to North America. Smithsonian Misc. Coils.. Vol. 59, No. 19. Wash- 
ington, D. C, 1913. 

2 William Hnvgaard: The Voyages of the Norsemen to America (Scandinavian Monographs, Vol. 1), New 
York, 1914. 

265 



266 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 

the lives, homes, and relics of old-time Icelanders and Greenlanders is 
particularly interesting. His account of the means and methods of Norse 
navigation is a worthy companion to Dr. Nansen's treatment 3 of the same 
subject, which was published while Professor Hovgaard's book was in 
preparation. Thus we have two independent mutually supplementing and 
perhaps equally valuable dissertations by experts on the problem from "the 
point of view of the navigator" — a quite vital one. Taken together their 
attractive and helpful presentations seem to have exhausted that branch 
of the subject. 

Hovgaard's Use of Illustration 

There is another feature of the work on which Professor Hovgaard seems 
to lay especial stress and which has a certain interest and value. He calls 
attention to the lack in Dr. Nansen's volumes of "any description or illus- 
trations of the coasts of America likely to have been visited by the Norse- 
men" and himself piovides a series of photographic views taken at intervals 
all the way from Baffin Land to New Jersey. Necessarily they leave many 
points unshown, but they present a more neaily complete exhibition of the 
kind than has hitherto been attempted. Obviously, it is confined to the 
sea front as it appears now. Probably some parts of the coast have changed 
little in aspect since Thorfinn Karlsefni's time, and for purposes of com- 
parison with the words of the sagas the illustrations are strictly relevant; 
but such is not always the case. 

Testimony as to Transforming Changes 

Professor Hovgaard incidentally bears significant testimony to trans- 
forming changes. 

A characteristic feature of Labrador, and, as mentioned above, of Baffin Land also, is 
the deposit of drifted boulders with which the surface of the country is thickly strewn, left 
on the bed rock by the ice of the glacial period. The presence of these boulders is especially 
marked on the higher levels; in fact, near the coast below the two-hundred-and-fifty-foot 
level they have been largely washed away or ground down by the sea during the process of 
uplift of the land which took place in post glacial times. Many boulders are left stranded 
in the valleys of the emerging land on the so-called raised boulder beaches. These boulders 
remind us of the hellur of the sagas, that is the rocks, or large (flat) stones, which suggested 
to the Norsemen the name "Helluland." 1 

The passage which Professor Hovgaard has chiefly in mind is no doubt 
that from Hauk's Book, rendered by him as follows: 

They sailed first to the Western Settlement and from there to Bjarneyar (Bear Islands). 
Thence they bore away southward two days . . . , when they saw land and put out the 
boat and explored the land and found there large flat stones, many of which were twelve ells 
wide. . . There were many Arctic foxes there. They called the land Helluland. 5 

' Fridtjof Nansen: In Northern Mists, translated by A. G. Chater, 2 vols., New York. ion. 

4 Hovgaard. op. cit., pp. 194-195. 

5 Ibid., p. 103. 



"V 1V«T)flfer 

NOV 25 1921 



THE ' VINLAND PROBLEM 



267 



The parallel but slightly more archaic manuscript, A.M. 557, has "with 
a north wind" instead of "southward" and defines the width of the stones by 
the statement "two men could spurn soles" on one of them, obviously lying 
at length. Hellur, mean- 
ing flagstones, would not 
perfectly fit ordinary 
boulders; but the Norse- 
men may have named 
by analogy rather than 
by strict identity, as we 
all often do. Now an il- 
lustration of Thorfinn 
Karlsefni's landing 
might or might not show 
a "boulder beach" at 
water level, for the text 
does not absolutely re- 
quire this, but it would 
be quite likely to present 
a foreground consider- 
ably different from any- 
thing that we can see 
now. Of course, nothing 
which was then under 
water can help in identi- 
fication. The Ragged 
Islands that figure con- 
picuously in one of his 
views are«. probable case 
in point. Professor Hov- 
gaard elsewhere ascribes 
a similar and still con- 
tinuing uplift to New- 
foundland. However, it 
may be granted that 
there has been less trans- 
formation of abrupt 
coasts like those of parts 
of Newfoundland. It 
would seem that a cliff 

may usually be raised or lowered a few feet or a few score feet without 
greatly changing the aspect of its wave-washed base. As will be mentioned 
later, more important modifications in appearance and productiveness may 
have taken place on more southerly parts of the North American coast as 
the result of submergence. 




Fig. 1 — Map illustrating the Vinland Problem reproduced on a 
reduced scale from map accompanying the author's work. "Early 
Norse Visits to North America." 



268 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 

A Confusion of Saga Geography 

A salient feature of the book is a conjectural duplication or triplication 
of saga geography. We are told that Leif's Vinland may be distinct from 
anything visited by Karlsefni and that "the Markland of one expedition may 
have been the Vinland of another, and the Helluland of one expedition may 
not have been the Helluland of another." 6 This curious way of looking at 
things reaches almost perversity in such a statement as: "If Markland was 
at Cape Porcupine, we must seek Vinland (i.e. Leifsbooths) farther down." 7 
True, Professor Hovgaard is here dealing with the local identification of 
another; but these passages reveal a too narrow tendency to treat a great 
region as a particular place. He would never dream of restricting old-time 
Iceland to Skalholt or old-time Greenland to Gardar; but he has a strong 
tendency to identify Vinland with Leifsbooths or Hop or some other 
restricted neighborhood; and his objection to Cape Porcupine for Markland 
is not that it is a cape, a mere spot instead of a land, but that it is the wrong 
cape or spot. 

He recognizes, however, that the relative positions of the three American 
lands are always the same in the sagas: "Markland was in a lower latitude 
than Helluland, and Vinland was in a still lower latitude than Markland." 8 
In this they reflected reality. The American sea front presented first the 
region of treeless, stony northern wastes; then, going southward, the forest 
country, still cold during many months and not bountiful in natural yield 
except of timber and game; and lastly the warm and fertile, land of vines 
producing abundant grapes and that wild grain which in its young growth 
looked like wheat, though it was really wild rice, and which the Norsemen 
called self-sown wheat by analogy, being amply familiar with wheat, raisins, 
and wine by reason of their European trade. 

Efforts to Harmonize Hauk's Book and the Flatey Book 

Professor Hovgaard is not at all content with Dr. Storm's arraignment 
of the Flatey Book narrative as a late corruption of the Hauk's Book saga 
distinguished by numerous errors quite out of accord with seasons and 
conditions in the new world and of a kind least likely to be made by a 
contemporary. He is at some pains to harmonize the two versions almost 
vi el arrnis even where they are apparently in conflict — an amiable and 
helpful intent if it were feasible. The results are sometimes curious. Thus 
he ascribes two American voyages to Leif, although neither version nor any 
tradition is aware of more than one; but two are required to provide for 
inconsistent events, motives, and details. The credit of first discovery is 
given to Biarni instead of Leif, to save the former's voyage for the Flatey 
Book, but the credit of the latter is not stalwart enough to carry the voyage 

fi Ibid., p. 221. 
' Ibid., p. 225. 
8 Ibid., p. 221. 



THE VINLAND PROBLEM 269 

story of Leif's half sister Freydis and her ghastly inhumanities, which he 
supposes, agreeing with most others, to be developed unwarrantably from 
some grotesque but harmless hints in Hauk's Book. The inconvenient 
accounts of southern conditions and products at Hop — which he considers 
much more northern — are explained as transfers from a supposed narrative 
of Leif's explorations, now lost to us. 

According to Professor Hovgaard's calculation, Biarni struck by accident 
on the Newfoundland coast, made his second landing at Hamilton Inlet, 
Labrador, and his third probably at an island off Baffin Land, whence he 
sailed to his father's Greenland home. Leif, having in a previous voyage 
struck on the lower coast, reversed Biarni's route, continued it along the 
sea front of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to Cape Sable, "Leif's Mark- 
land," then crossed the Gulf of Maine to southern New England. He says: 
"Leif's Vinland was in the region of Cape Cod." 9 Leif may well have been 
there, but the data are too meager for confident assertion. No doubt he 
reached some seaboard where warmth prevailed and grapes fit for wine 
making abounded. Beyond that we can neither affirm nor deny. But the 
conception of Vinland among the old Norsemen apparently would include 
Cape Cod. 

Schedule of Karlsefni's Voyage 

The Hovgaard map of Karlsefni's voyage places his first landing on the 
extreme northern part of the Labrador coast; his second (supposed to be in 
Markland) less defensibly on the same coast a little below Nain, near the 
northern limit of even rather small trees, where perhaps no one ever thought 
of finding a forest before; his third, Straumfiord, their chief Vinland home, 
on Sandwich Bay also in Labrador, moderately available as a rather cold 
oasis but in the immediate neighborhood of the shore aptly described by 
Cartwright as "the country God gave to Cain;" and, finally, his most 
southern point, Hop the delightful, at or near Sop's Arm on the particularly 
inhospitable front of northern Newfoundland. In view of the many fine 
and valuable things which the book contains, such a schedule must be found 
disappointing. In the saga the whole region near Straumfiord is presented 
as attractive during summer time. 

There were mountains there, and the country roundabout was fair to look upon. They 
did naught but explore the country. There was tall grass there. 

Of Hop it is written: 

There were self-sown wheat fields on the land there wherever there were hollows and 
wherever there was hilly ground there were vines. . . They remained there that winter. 
No snow came, and all of their live stock lived by grazing. 10 

Perhaps "no snow" is to be understood as no snow that would lie deep and 
interfere with grazing. There might be very little snowfall, indeed, during 

» Ibid., p. 228 
"> Ibid., p. 107 



270 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 

an unusually mild winter at Narragansett Bay. But it cannot be pretended 
that the winter conditions recited fit Newfoundland. The only recourse is 
to discard such passages; but they are integral, characteristic, and significant 
parts of the saga, and there is no trace of interpolation. 

Fossum's Work 

More recent and a little less full is Dr. Fossum's discussion of the Norse 
discovery of America. The following sentence from the introduction gives 
the spirit of his treatment: "If this work has any character of its own, it is 
that it accepts without reserve the statements of the saga narrative and 
attempts to follow the text closely." 11 

Origin and Character of the Saga 

This is going much too far in the other direction. Such acceptance might 
be warranted if we had in hand authenticated contemporary narrations of 
the normal historic kind; but no one pretends that the explorers brought a 
saga back with them or even wrote one afterward. There may have been 
written memoranda in the nature of a ship's log, though the prevailing 
opinion is that even these items passed by oral tradition only. For the rest 
the Vinland-voyage parts of the most nearly trustworthy version that we 
have are chiefly of ballad-like verses translated into prose and presenting 
successive episodes in a graphic, imaginative, sometimes mythical, way. As 
I have suggested in "Early Norse Visits:" "A not extravagant ingenuity may 
distinguish the episodes of Thorhall the Huntsman, the Gaelic Runners, the 
Battle at Hop, the Death of Thorvald, the Markland Captives, and the 
Death of Biarni, each easily separable and individual, as probably single 
ballads in their original shape." 12 Two of them preserve residua of the 
original verses, which by diction and meter are said to belong to the eleventh 
century. 

The more voluminous earlier portion of the saga, dealing with events in 
Iceland and Greenland, and especially the latter, is developed from, or built 
up about, the achievements of Eric the Red and in a lesser degree the 
experiences of Gudrid, the wife of Thorstein Ericsson and afterward of the 
more successful explorer, Thorfinn Karlsefni. It is picturesque with 
elaborate sorceries, gruesome prophecies by a supposedly reanimated corpse, 
and sufferings from threatened shipwreck, famine, and pestilence. 

These varied materials were brought together, through what intermediate 
procedure we cannot tell, and took shape in the final saga-composer's hands 
about the year 1200, to judge by the nobly epic style which is characteristic 
of that period. There may have been some changes between that time and 
its final copying into Hauk's Book a few years before the death of Hauk 
Erlendsson in 1334. It is certain there were some divergencies in different 

11 Andrew Fossum: The Norse Discovery of America. Minneapolis. Minn.. laiS, p. 8. 
'- Babcock, op. cit., p. 70. 



THE VINLAND PROBLEM 27 1 

copies, for the parallel and corroborative manuscript A.M. 557 varies 
slightly at several points and omits the final genealogy, which Hauk himself 
apparently added. Even at the first there was some uncertainty; the saga 
itself frankly gives us an alternative variant of the Hop expedition, making 
Karlsefni take but a part of his force with him, leave Biarni and Gudrid 
behind at Straumfiord, and return after only two months' stay. There are 
signs, too, that the saga man permitted himself occasional liberties with his 
material. Thus Haki and Haekia as the matter stands are said to find 
grapes and grain in spring, that is, about the time that the eggs of sea birds 
and waterfowl were plentiful. Their little story does not synchronize with 
the rest of the saga. There can be no doubt that we have here a real instance 
of displacement. Whether for Thorfinn or for Leif before him, these Gaelic 
Runners did their rapid investigating, if at all, in the early autumn. 

However much we may value this saga for its general evidence of an 
important feature of history and for its high and entertaining literary 
qualities, can we reasonably treat it as a sacred gospel to be followed 
"without reserve" and "closely" in all its "statements"? 

Origin and Character of the Flatey Book Narrative 

The case for the Flatey Book narrative is much worse. We have no 
history of it before its copying in 1385; but good judges hold that its 
composition cannot have been much earlier, determining by the test of 
style, which is crucial in these Icelandic matters. That is it became a saga 
about 350 or 375 years after the Vinland voyages. The saga composer 
had knowledge of some version of the Hauk's Book narrative, for he refers to 
the Saga of Eric and in another place mentions Karlsefni as having given 
the fullest account of Vinland matters. He must also have had access to 
other traditional sources for items which seem authentic, such as the 
palisades around Thorfinn's house, the grain shed on an island, and the 
crude astronomical observation of the length of the day and the sun's 
rising and setting, presumably made at Straumfiord. But he has confused 
this bay with Hop; has multiplied voyages, making almost every prominent 
person of Thorfinn's party head one of them; and has generally blurred 
the record. Leifsbooths, of which the other saga knows nothing and which 
Leif can hardly have had time to build in the Vinland interruption of his 
main mission, are found by each succeeding party of explorers apparently 
intact (for there is no suggestion of rebuilding) even after the natives had 
shown themselves furiously hostile and would surely have visited destruction 
on anything belonging to the invaders. Inconsistencies and errors abound. 

Nevertheless, Dr. Fossum prefers the Flatey Book version in most cases 
where the two differ, although, like Professor Hovgaard, he aims to utilize 
both. Here is his statement of the case. 

The two sagas that relate these exploits each presents [sic] a distinct phase of the events. 
The story of the Flateyarbok gives an account of the deeds of the family of Eirik the Red 



272 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 

and the Grcenlanders. The story of the Karlsefne saga describes in detail the expedition of 
Karlsefne and the Icelanders. Karlsefne was an Icelander, resided in Iceland, and was there 
looked upon as a national hero. As long as it was possible to keep apart the stories of the 
Greenlandcrs and the Icelanders, there was no quarrel between the two sagas; but as soon 
as the geography of the new discoveries became confused and indistinct, the claims of the 
Greenlanders and Icelanders are sure to clash. . . The saga of Bjarne, Leif, and Thorvald 
developed in Greenland . . . and was late in coming to Iceland. . . The saga of 
Eirik the Red and his family in Greenland and the saga of Karlsefne in Iceland seem to have 
developed independently for at least two centuries. When at length they attempted to 
combine them they found that the only part that suited both was the account of Eirik the 
Red in Greenland. . . Counter-claims were made by the partisans of the two families, 
and a strife arose which has continued down to our day. . . In how far [sic] Karlsefne 
himself is guilty of misrepresenting the facts, and how much we are to attribute to his 
ambitious family, is not easy to determine. . . At any rate they made claims which 
Leif's friends in Greenland could not concede. . . In thinly veiled language they attacked 
even Eirik the Red, who had helped them in many ways and shown them great hospitality 
in Greenland. 13 

Objection to Fossum's Conclusion 

The total offending on which is based the charge of "ingratitude for his 
hospitality" seems to be that in the artless graphic fashion of such narratives, 
often concerned about trifles, the saga in Hauk's Book relates how Thorfinn 
Karlsefni from his ship stores helped out Eric's supplies at Christmas in a 
time of dearth, so that all enjoyed themselves mightily. This was probably 
true; having regard to the conditions of the time and place. The statement 
seems natural and harmless. One must demur to other features of these and 
like passages. We do not know that there was any saga of "Biarni, Leif, and 
Thorvald" nor that any saga ever was composed in Greenland. Biarni was 
not a member of "the family." The Greenland passages of the two sagas are 
far from identical. There is no Karlsefni saga authoritatively so named 
from the beginning. Centuries after the copying of Hauk's Book, Arne 
Magnusson found its version left without title and wrote into the blank 
space above it: "The Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefni and Snorri Thorbrandson," 
but it is generally believed that the title should be "The Saga of Erik the 
Red" as in the case of the companion manuscript A.M. 557. There is no 
proof of any strife between Icelanders and Greenlanders over claims to 
glorification in or by these sagas. The Erik the Red saga of Hauk's Book 
and its companion does not appear to have been conceived at all in a spirit 
of hostility to that chieftain and his family or disparagement of them. 

It is very far from being a eulogy of Karlsefni or Icelanders generally at 
the expense of Eric's family or of Greenlanders, and it is not the narrative of 
an exclusively Icelandic voyage, as thus contradistinguished; though, as to 
that, all Greenlanders were then Icelanders of less than twenty years' 
residence in Greenland. It certainly presents Thorfinn Karlsefni's claims 
to distinction, but he was almost a member of Eric's household circle and at 
any rate had rendered a conspicuously important service which could not be 
suppressed. 

'"Fossum, op. at., pp. 134, 13s, 137, 147-148- 



THE VINLAND PROBLEM 273 

A more plausible indictment for injustice to the family of Eric might be 
drawn against the Flatey Book version, which deprives Leif of the credit 
of first discovery in favor of the outsider Biarni and charges Freydis with 
most diabolical murders, including the unprovoked slaughter of several 
quite helpless women by her own hand. However, there is no need 
to impute any sinister motive or unfair bias to the composer of either 
form of the saga. The pleasure of telling a good story and explaining 
historical matters would no doubt be motive enough. This article has 
already indicated how these narratives probably came into their present 
volume and shape. 

Fossum's Location of Vinland on the St. Lawrence 

As a result of his study of the sagas, in particular of their sailing directions, 
real or fancied, and with some personal inspection of the ground, Dr. Fossum 
dissents widely from some parts of Professor Hovgaard's scheme of courses 
and landings. In the case of Karlsefni the comparison is not startling. 
Dr. Fossum merely shifts Straumfiord from Sandwich Bay, Labrador, to 
Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland, and Hop from one Newfoundland bay 
to another a little more southward, without making the identification 
appreciably more acceptable. But the treatment of Leif is quite revolu- 
tionary. Instead of carrying him to Cape Cod and warm regions beyond it 
with Professor Hovgaard, Dr. Fossum takes him through the strait of Belle 
Isle and the Gulf of St. Lawrence westward to the island of Anticosti and 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, then up the river as far as the northern 
limit of growth of the large wild grape at the Isle of Orleans. In other 
words, his Vinland is not on the seaboard in relatively warm latitudes but 
inland westward up and down that northern river, where winter is winter 
indeed. It follows that Thorvald's western boat voyage is exclusively a 
river journey and his eastern voyage becomes a nearly complete circum- 
navigation of the gulf. But the settlement of Leifsbooths, the alleged 
chief home in Vinland, is placed on the St. Lawrence River, and there's 
not much about it all to suggest the old geographers' conception of a possible 
connection with Africa. 

Considering that both Professor Hovgaard and Dr. Fossum rely chiefly on 
the Flatey Book for all events preceding the voyage of Thorfinn Karlsefni, 
that their methods are much alike, and that both are especially equipped for 
the task, it seems curious and suggestive that such diverse results should be 
reached. 

A brief inspection of some of these Flatey Book guideposts may be 
instructive. It is related of Leif's party: 

When they were ready they sailed out to sea and found first the land which Biarni and his 
shipmates found last. Great ice mountains lay inland back from the sea. . . They 
returned to the ship, put out to sea, and found a second land. . . They sailed away from 
the mainland with northeast winds and were out two days before they sighted land. 



274 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 

These vague assertions appear to have been strung together to continue 
the story, without an attempt at such precision as would guide future 
navigators or permit close identification of places. Some other statements 
are perhaps a shade more particular, but it is manifestly unsafe to treat them 
as invariably significant, exact, and reliable and to strain for the utmost 
that can be evolved from them. Such a procedure might land us in any 
harbor. 

The Testimony of the Cross 

In support of his Vinland by the St. Lawrence Dr. Fossum cites instances 
of early missionaries who found the cross in that region, with some accom- 
panying vestiges of Christianity. We cannot tell how far the wish may have 
been father to the thought in the case of these good priests. The cross is 
a rather widely spread symbol. But if it and other religious relics of any 
kind really were left by white visitors there is still no occasion for crediting 
the gift to the Norsemen, especially since they at the opening of the eleventh 
century were newly and imperfectly Christianized at the best. But other 
white peoples with a more deeply grounded Christianity may well have been 
on the St. Lawrence long before the time when the cross surprised the 
priests. The map of Sylvanus, 151 1, shows the Gulf pretty accurately and 
affords a fair indication that some one had explored it. Basque and Breton 
fishing crews frequented the banks of Newfoundland and the neighboring 
shores still earlier and may have sailed far within. It is needless to prolong 
the list of possibilities. There is nothing at all to connect these supposed 
vestiges of Christian faith with the Norsemen. 

The Testimony of the Game Lacrosse 

As further reinforcement Dr. Fossum cites the game of lacrosse, which 
has already done similar duty in several works. But those who know the 
Indian best seem convinced that it is of exclusively native origin. Any 
partial parallels of Norwegian origin may well pass as coincidences or as 
being conceivably due to some vastly remoter common ancestry- — the former 
being much more likely. But even if the Norsemen taught lacrosse to some 
Indian tribe the performance may have taken place at any one of many 
points along the coast. There is nothing to anchor it to Gaspe, Anticosti, 
or the Isle of Orleans. Surely the case for corroboration is as wavering and 
tenuous as heat haze in summer time. The St. Lawrence hypothesis is not 
new with Dr. Fossum. Indeed, as applied to Great Ireland, it is at least as 
old as Eugene Beauvois' work 14 on the discovery of the New World by the 
Irish; that is to say, the seventies of the last century. Though never 
widely accepted and though discountenanced by facts and climatic 
conditions, this theory comes into sight now and then with a new 
advocate. 

M Eugene Beauvois: Le decouverte du nouveau monde par les irlandais. Nancy, 1875; map on p. 82. 



the vinland problem 275 

Fossum's Real Contribution to the Subject 

One can only say that Dr. Fossum has been more happy in some less 
salient and capital contentions. He has made it seem even more probable 
than before that Eric the Red extended his first explorations to a part of 
Baffin Land. He may be right also in supposing that the Bear Islands, from 
which Karlsefni took off more or less to the southward on his voyage to 
Helluland, lay on or near the Baffin Land shore — Upper Greenland or 
Baffin Land, it matters little which. A northerly wind such as is mentioned 
in the saga would facilitate the voyage from either point, with a difference 
of only a few degrees in the direction of sailing. It may, however, be as well 
to adhere to the still general understanding till we have more conclusive 
evidence that this point of departure was on the western, not the eastern, 
side of Davis Strait. 

Steensby's Views and Gagnon's Criticism 

Mr. Alphonse Gagnon, of Quebec, thoroughly conversant with the 
productions and temperature of that region, has had a word to say con- 
cerning the hypothesis which locates Vinland there. 15 It is in reply to a study 
by the learned Danish ethnographer-geographer, Professor Steensby, 
unhappily since deceased, on "The Norsemen's Route from Greenland to 
Wineland," 16 which with local differences follows the same general lines as 
Dr. Fossum's work. Mr. Gagnon expresses grave doubt that the Norsemen 
would find wild grapes in the territory now comprised in the county of 
Montmagny, at least in such quantity and quality as would justify the name 
Vinland. He finds other incongruities in the saga statements that the 
cattle lived freely at pasture in winter time and that the ground was not 
frozen. 

Steensby takes Karlsefni as well as Leif up the St. Lawrence and finds 
Keelness near the mouth of the Saguenay, instead of on the Newfoundland 
shore, while Straumfiord becomes a reach of the lower St. Lawrence River, 
Straumey the Small Hare Island therein, Hop a slight expansion of the 
Riviere du Sud a little above its mouth near St. Thomas, and Wineland the 
southern shore of the main river and the country behind roughly corre- 
sponding to the county of Montmagny or in a wider sense the whole lower 
part of the valley of the St. Lawrence River. This is more thoroughgoing 
than Dr. Fossum's scheme of the voyages and offers a welcome relief from 
the contrasting references to "Leif's Vinland" and "Karlsefni's Vinland" in 
some recent works. But the Danish writer appears to attain unity and 
conformity by establishing both of them in inadmissible quarters, condemned 
by considerations of climate and natural production such as Gagnon has 
indicated. However there is, of course, much of solid worth in Professor 

16 Alphonse Gagnon: La question du Vinland, Bull. Soc. de Geogr. de Quebec, Vol. 12, 1918, pp. 211-218. 
>«H. P. Steensby: Norsemen's Route from Greenland to Wineland, Meddelelser om Gt$nland, Vol. 56, 
Copenhagen, 1918, pp. 140-202. 



276 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 

Steensby's little treatise. It insists on Dr. Storm's position in favor of the 
Eric the Red saga as given by Hauk's Book and A.M. 557 and the com- 
parative unreliability of the Flatey Book version. 

Vignaud's Position 

The veteran historical investigator Henry Vignaud has published an 
interesting review 17 of my "Early Norse Visits to North America." It 
comprises a very fair summary of much of the contents of that book and 
presents many remarks with which I am in accord. However, Mr. Vignaud 
does not think we are warranted in seeking lands of Norse discovery so far 
south as southern New England. He believes that if these redoubtable 
people had discovered a country so lovely and fertile as that where they 
have placed their station of Hop they would have remained there, not- 
withstanding the admittedly dangerous hostility of the Indians. But we 
must not accept unreservedly the nearly impossible feats of arms recorded 
in the Icelandic sagas. These Norsemen were good soldiers but not magi- 
cians. Also there were few of them, while the Indians were relatively very 
numerous. Thorfinn Karlsefni's Vinland expedition, the largest on record, 
numbered only a hundred and sixty men. On the other hand, the region 
about Narragansett Bay was probably abundantly populated by natives, 
as it was when white men next found the place. The Norsemen, of course, 
had no firearms and were little, if any, better supplied with missile weapons 
than their opponents. Their principal advantage was in the possession of 
steel swords and axes as contrasted with the stone tomahawks of the 
Indians; then, too, their shields protected them. There is also something 
to be said for their wider, if still credulous, intelligence and their better 
disciplined ways. But all these advantages could not offset such great odds 
nor sufficiently fortify them against the wearing, unhopeful discomfort of 
living constantly on guard against a relentless and stealthy enemy. Some 
of the early English settlements, better equipped than the Norse, failed 
utterly ; others maintained their ground with difficulty by the aid of repeated 
reinforcements from an ample home population in times of readier transit. 
The Greenlanders and Icelanders in Vinland were practically cut off from 
their bases, and, even had these been accessible, few men could have been 
spared from Greenland. It seems that Karlsefni consulted only common 
prudence in withdrawing from an untenable outpost while his force was not 
yet weakened. The final abandonment of Vinland was determined, according 
to the saga, by fierce quarrels at Straumfiord among the colonists themselves 
over the women ; also perhaps in some degree by the unsatisfactory winter 
conditions of the place. It all seems to follow very naturally and quite 
in the order of things, human nature, savage and quasi civilized, being as 
history discloses. 

17 Journ. Soc. des Americanistes de Paris, Vol. II, 1914, No. I, pp. 335-337. 



the vinland problem 277 

Delabarre's Summing up of Recent Opinion 

Professor Delabarre, while dealing amply and excellently with a quite 
distinct theme, 18 has incidentally reviewed the recent course of opinion as 
to the problems of the Vinland voyages, taking a kind of straw vote of the 
authors represented in his notes and observing changes of judgment from 
time to time. He disclaims positive conclusions of his own, for reasons 
given ; but his brief summary presents very favorably the work and views 
of Dr. Fossum, who "seems to establish conclusively the fact that Leif's 
Vinland and Thorfinn's Hop were different regions." 19 As already set forth, 
one cannot recognize Hop as a "region" at all nor admit that Vinland was a 
region which did not include Hop. 

The Bearing of the Dighton Rock Inscription 

Professor Delabarre relates some interesting observations which he has 
made bearing on the subsidence or non-subsidence of land in the neighbor- 
hood of Dighton Rock, 20 consequently in all probability about Narragansett 
and Mount Hope bays as well. He is doubtless right in attaching importance 
to the marsh-growth investigations of Mr. Charles A. Davis, tending to 
establish depression of the New England coast even considerably farther 
north. His own experiences with Indian artifacts on an old level below the 
marsh-peat surface of an island near the rock have a like tendency. Regard- 
ing the surface on which the rock has stood the evidence of certain colonial 
entries suggests movement in the opposite direction so far as concerns the 
last two or three centuries. But these entries, as cited, seem indefinite with 
regard to the area now under water. In any case, it is not necessary to 
maintain a subsidence of the coast continuing till the present time nor till 
those entries were made. It is hardly reasonable to suppose that a part of 
the Dighton Rock inscription was carved under water or in immediate 
expectation of overflow, such as regularly happens now. The year 1003 is 
a long way off and allows leeway for considerable changes. One need only 
suppose a moderate lowering of level — regular or irregular, continuous or 
discontinuous — during some part of the last nine hundred years. Wild rice 
is still native to the Narragansett region ; we picture ample beds of it in the 
time of Karlsefni, the wild "wheat" in "hollows" of the saga, where now is 
only water. It is not likely that one neighborhood is an exception to the 
general behavior of the lower coast, easily accounted for by the post-glacial 
uplift of the shore farther north. 21 

18 E. B. Delabarre: Recent History of Dighton Rock, Pubis. Colonial Soc. of Massachusetts, Vol. 20. Boston, 
1920, pp. 286-462; reference on pp. 315-317. 

"Ibid., p. 318. 

30 Ibid., pp. 399 and 400. 

21 The generally accepted theory of recent and continuing subsidence of the Atlantic coast of the United 
States and the southeastern coast of Canada has been controverted by Professor D. W. Johnson who sets forth 
the theory of coastal stability within historic times. See the article "Is the Atlantic Coast Sinking?," Geogr. 
Rev., Vol. 3. 1917, pp. 135-139- 



278 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 

Conclusions 

It will be observed from the foregoing summary of the work of recent 
writers that there is a considerable tendency to rehabilitate the Flatey Book 
narrative as an authority or source; to partly harmonize the two versions 
by making them deal with expeditions to distinct regions, by multiplying 
Vinlands, and the rest; and to disregard the saga's explicit statements of 
the favorable conditions of Hop and to locate that bay at one point or 
another of the chill face of Newfoundland. By some writers Leif's Vinland 
fares better, being allowed to stray even as far as southern Massachusetts; 
but by others it is held fast to the shores of the St. Lawrence. A minutely 
literal method of construing these old half historical voyage stories, to which 
we have all perhaps been too much addicted, has now about reached its 
climax. To say that the foregoing features of criticism and exposition prevail 
for the present is not, of course, to admit that they are mainly sound or 
correct. Not very long ago Nansen's mythological criticism was in the 
ascendant, threatening to obliterate the saga altogether. That phase has 
passed; and works like Dr. Fossum's, attempting a literal following of the 
words of both sagas, with no allowances or as few as possible, are perhaps a 
natural reaction. 

A Middle Ground Possible 

We need not go quite to either extreme. It is unnecessary to shut our 
eyes to certain elements of myth in the sagas, but we may wisely decline 
to treat as purely mythical the plain statements of real products and 
conditions that are still found in situ and only needed finding then. Simi- 
larly, there is no need to treat as something too precious to be tampered with 
such statements as that they sailed just two days before making each of 
their first three discoveries. This conventional formula would readily slip 
in from a saga man's pen long afterward, as would also some hints of 
direction that have occasionally been held to require very great precision 
in construing; also such a bit of careless attribution as the skin boats alleged 
to be in use by the Indians at Hop. Possibly this may likewise be true of 
the explosive Indian weapon which is still inadequately explained, for it 
surely is not the archaic Algonquian two-men club, as Schoolcraft once 
fancied. 

Antecedent Probability of a Norse Visit to Cape Cod 

It has often been said, very soundly, that even if there were no sagas and 
records of voyages we must believe that a daring race of seafarers like the 
Norsemen could not remain several centuries settled in Greenland without 
visiting by accident or design the neighboring regions of America. It is 
likely that Eric touched, or at least saw, Baffin Land in the course of his 
first three years' Greenland explorations. If not, hunting parties of the 
Nordsetr men were certain to do so before long. Labrador, too, lying next 
below, and also offering a broad front to Greenland across a comparatively 



THE VINLAND PROBLEM 279 

narrow sea, was plainly marked by destiny for early discovery. These 
things are obvious. As to lower regions, it is true that neither Baffin Land 
nor northern Labrador would offer much suggestion of more hospitable 
climes to lure the visitors farther southward; but there remained the 
probability of a chance southern landfall, storm-driven, in an age when 
charts and compasses were wanting and men were greatly at the mercy of 
wind and weather. A report of warm, rich southern country, a veritable 
earthly paradise to men from relatively cheerless and meager latitudes, 
would surely reinforce the zeal of southward-coasting explorers, so as to 
carry them well on toward the abundance and comfort reported. According 
to the saga, this was just what happened. Leif, on the long transatlantic 
voyage from Norway, was storm-driven from his course for Greenland and 
brought to Vinland, probably not farther north than Cape Cod and possibly 
much below it. On his very favorable report, Thorfinn Karlsefni and his 
friends organized an expedition of would-be Vinland settlers and followed the 
American coast downward, perhaps at first in wide loops of sea sailing, as 
knowing that they could not yet be near a desirable home site, but afterward 
more closely, scrutinizing as they sailed, until they reached a bay of northern 
Vinland with a country about it very lovely in summer time, though sure to 
prove dangerously unproductive and cold in winter — as they could not yet 
know. 

It all happens in the saga as it naturally would happen, and the best 
proof of general authenticity is that, according to its record, the Norsemen 
found what they were sure to find — since it was really there. The capital 
item of allurement, Vinland (Wineland) the Good, lay in waiting all the 
time, a land where great beds of wild grain bordered the estuaries and shallow 
parts of rivers; a land of ample timber growth where grapevines festooned 
the wooded hillsides, often yielding large grapes of delightful flavor; an 
extensive land, stretching up and down the coast, in parts bending far out 
eastward and warm enough in its lower reaches to suggest a connection with 
Africa. 

Markland and Helluland 

Markland and Helluland, of course, were also there, distinguished by 
their characteristics of forestry and stoniness, with all kinds of game in the 
one and Arctic foxes in the other. Some latitude may be allowed as to their 
boundaries, which doubtless were not very clear to the Greenlanders or the 
later saga men. Undoubtedly Newfoundland was a forest land (Markland), 
and the term may then have included also a part of southern Labrador for 
the same reason. 22 It was equally certain that if the explorers searched far 
enough they would find the Furdustrandir, a stretch of seemingly inter- 
minable flat sands and dunes sometimes on the mainland sometimes with a 
long, shallow lagoon between. This is a practically unbroken formation 
for all the shore south of New York; also, with one or two breaks, for that 

- W. H. Babcock: Markland. Otherwise Newfoundland, Ceogr. Rev., Vol. 4, 1017, pp. 300-315. 



) 



28o THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 

between New York and the tip of Cape Cod. North of that it can hardly be 
said to exist, except in minor stretches, the most considerable and charac- 
teristic of which is probably the Atlantic front of Richmond County, Cape 
Breton, where boats are said to be hauled sometimes across the low isthmus 
of St. Peters to the inland water known as Bras d'Or. Nine hundred years 
ago the low strands of this Nova Scotian part of the coast may have been 
much more extended than now. Whether or not these were specifically the 
beaches intended, the explorers certainly must have had afterward ample 
experience farther southward with the strands which seemed so long that 
the vessels would never have done sailing by them and so were named the 
Wonderstrands. Possibly these may have been dislodged from their proper 
place in the narrative. It is more important to note that here was something 
real and great, something of which the Norsemen could have no inkling from 
home experience, but which they found and recorded. 

Corroborating Features 

Certain more restricted coastal features add corroboration. An island 
(Straumey) with strong currents about it set in front of an inlet and bay 
(Straumfiord) with fine grass country about it may not be exclusively 
American; but the combination is rather unusual, and some search would 
be required to find it in either hemisphere. It is found, however, at the 
mouth of the Bay of Fundy in Grand Manan Island, Grand Manan Channel, 
Passamaquoddy Bay, and the surrounding region. Again, the saga calls for 
a peninsula extending northward and containing a river flowing from the 
east to the west. This peninsula or a conspicuous point on it is named 
Keelness (Kjalarness). Stefansson's map of 1570 (or 1590) names it 
Promontorium Winlandiae, showing that tradition held it to be the northern 
extremity of Vinland. Now there are four northward peninsulas on our 
coast; the upper end of Labrador just south of Hudson straits and barred by 
its practically Arctic conditions; the northern peninsula of Newfoundland, 
riverless and far too chill; Cape Cod, which has no rivers; and the western 
northward-jutting part of Cape Breton Island, which has Margarie and 
Mabou Rivers, flowing as stated in the saga, and quite fulfills every 
requirement. 

From Straumfiord, we are- told, Karlsefni made a year's expedition south- 
ward, apparently seeking more favorable winter quarters. Sailing "a long 
way," his men established themselves at a Hop, into which a river emptied 
before passing thence to the sea. They found vines and wild grain in all 
suitable places. In the winter it was so mild that their cattle lived by 
pasture and no snow fell — perhaps, as previously stated, we should under- 
stand none that would cover the ground and interfere with grazing. The 
conditions indicate a part of Vinland such as Leif had previously 
visited and such as was more worthy of the name. Several nearly land- 
locked bays in the middle parts of our coast would supply all that is called 



THE VINLAND PROBLEM 281 

for, perhaps none better than Mount Hope Bay between Rhode Island and 
Massachusetts. 

One finds verisimilitude also in the behavior of the Indians, who first 
traded with them, afterward fought them, and were beaten off with diffi- 
culty, so that the white men judged it best to go back to Straumfiord. The 
story of the battle is very realistic and with the description of the natives 
must have come at first from an eyewitness, though the saga man may be 
responsible for a few interpolations as suggested above. The Norsemen 
would have had no data from which to invent these Indians. They must 
simply have experienced them. 

Some question has been raised about the absence of "mountains" from the 
neighborhood of Passamaquoddy Bay and of Mount Hope Bay, though they 
are mentioned as at Straumfiord and Hop in the saga. But what is a 
mountain? In the former instance the context shows that nothing Andean 
or Alpine could have been intended. Rather the reference is to such gracious 
fells or high rounded hills as we actually find. There is no mention of 
mountains in the description of Hop. One manuscript only in dealing with a 
quite different region refers to the mountains which were at Hop. If this be 
authentic, it may refer to the range of hills running northward from behind 
Fall River; but in any event it is too slight a reliance to control the identi- 
fication of an important station. 

The Probable Course of Karlsefni's Expedition 

In view of the above considerations it seems most likely that Karlsefni's 
expedition of explorers and intending settlers, after sailing south or south- 
west from known regions in western Greenland and barely landing on the 
treeless and cheerless front of upper Labrador, made a brief but longer stay 
in Newfoundland among the abundant game of its forests, crossed the strait 
of Cabot to the low sands and upjutting northern horn of Cape Breton 
Island but declined to round that cape into the Gulf, preferring to follow 
down the Atlantic face of Nova Scotia instead. This brought them to a 
bay-indented sea front and especially to the Bay of Fundy and its branches, 
the sweeping sides of which would attract double attention after the slight- 
ness of ebb and flow along the coast last left behind them. Here they 
established their home in a pleasant grassy country, bordering on Pas- 
samaquoddy Bay, with Grand Manan Island lying out before it. Here, too, 
they probably made the observation of eyktarstadr and dagmalasladr which 
has been such a bone of contention, being commonly assumed, without 
warrant, to mark their most southern point of travel. When food grew 
scant in winter time they moved out to the island, with some gain though 
still unsatisfied. They were within the borders of Vinland, but far north of 
its warmer parts which Leif had reached. The country about them was not 
a land of grapes, though in season a few specimens might be brought by 
scouts and runners from rather distant points. Wine was simply not to be 



282 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 

had. A search for a home site more truly representative of Vinland became 
urgent. 

A minority of the explorers, led by Thorhall the Huntsman, thought it 
was to be found by sailing around Cape Breton Island to the Gulf beyond, 
and they departed in that quest with one vessel. But Karlsefni rightly 
judged that the greater (and doubtless the warmer) stretch of coast lay 
southward and sailed that way a long distance, perhaps crossing the Gulf 
of Maine directly, but possibly skirting its curved shore instead. The 
nearly landlocked bay, or H6p, where he planted himself again, among the 
hills full of grapevines and the low grounds full of wild rice, may have been 
as far north as Ipswich, Massachusetts, but the conditions seem better met 
by some part of the southern face of New England, such as Mount Hope 
Bay. They landed and built their houses in the spring and lived there in 
comfort through the next summer and winter — the winter an exceptionally 
mild one — but, after a sojourn of a year, the hostility of the neighboring 
Indians drove them back to Passamaquoddy Bay. 

Then Karlsefni with one ship essayed Thorhall's route, sailed around 
Cape Breton's upjutting promontory, and reached the mouth of the Marjorie 
or Mabou River, well down on its western side. Here again native hostility 
awaited him, and Thorvald Ericsson was killed by a sharpshooting archer. 
A futile chase left them with the impression that the aggressor was more 
and worse than human. So, to save the rest of their party, they hastened 
back again to Passamaquoddy. Then, baffled and disappointed and 
quarreling among themselves, they finally left Vinland altogether for 
Greenland, pausing at Markland on the way. 

It seems that Rafn was about right as to the most southerly point reached, 
but fiis identification has suffered by the character of the supplemental 
local evidences brought forward needlessly in its support. The round 
tower, Dighton Rock, and the "skeleton in armor" do not recommend any 
hypothesis; but it is unfortunate that they should seem to detract from one 
entitled to serious consideration without them'. Whether Leif touched the 
coast still farther south must remain a mere matter of fancy. Hop seems 
to have supplied the conditions and data which he had reported. 

There may have been other Norse voyages to America, we cannot estimate 
how many, and it is possible that the Flatey Book narrative may perserve a 
few items contributed by them ; but it seems to me that Thorfinn Karlsefni's 
elaborate and long continued endeavor adequately to explore and perma- 
nently to settle is the only one of which we have a report that will enable us 
to trace it approximately in some detail, notwithstanding the strange way 
in which the narrative grew up into its final form; and that the course of 
events — and of the intending colonists — must have been pretty nearly as 
herein described. 



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